The name they put on me | Neo Yau | TEDxHKBU

Failing is not something to be scared of. You will eventually get to somewhere you enjoy and where you are considered to be successful.

Emerging as a new star in showbiz, Neo Yau is taking baby steps towards his dreams of acting and playwriting. After graduating from the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts (HKAPA), he and his partners started off establishing the group Mocking Jer whose first production gained over 100 thousand views online in just a few weeks’ time. The two local movies, ‘For Love, We Can’ and ‘She Remembers, He Forgets’, boosted his fame among the Hong Kong audience and have earned him recognition. As a movie lover, Neo has been indulging in movie appreciation and production since his childhood. His urge to perform and his belief in local production are his greatest motivation and drive in his acting and script-writing career. With Stanley Kubrick as his favorite director back in the days in HKAPA, Neo believes that imitation is at the root of improving performance.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx

Hello, everyone. I am Neo Yau.

And before I start,

I have to apologize to all of you

because I speak
really, really bad English.

(Laughter) (Applause)

I kept asking the organizers
if I can speak Cantonese today,

and they told me

that some of you cannot
understand Cantonese very well.

Who cannot understand Cantonese here?

(Laughter)

Oh my god.

So it's you, you, you, you bastards

(Laughter)

who makes me suffer for the last weeks
for an English script, okay?

Okay, let's get started.

Okay.

First of all,

I would like to know
the name you guys put on me.

Any of you know me before today?

Okay, thank you.

So, any of you know me

because of watching the movie
"She Remembers, He Forgets,"

"哪一天我們會飛"?

Okay, thank you.

How about the "Ten Years"?

Thank you.

How about the online videos,

such as the "Mocking Jer" and "CapTV"?

Okay, okay.

So, what does that make me?

An actor?

A short film producer? Or what?

I don't know.

I will talk about it later.

I would like to make today's event,
the speech, meaningful.

So I'm going to talk about something

that I don't usually talk
to the magazine or the newspaper,

such as the relationship
between me and the "100Most"

that nobody knows, okay?

So,

the first name they put on me -

or the first name they put on all of us -

what's that?

I would say a student.

When we were a student,

it means that we have lack of experience.

When we were a student,

we can try, we can fail,

we can be reckless,

we can be anything.

And we are always forgiven

because we are still studying.

Back in my days in secondary school,
when I was a student,

actually, I didn't spend
a lot of time to study.

(Laughter)

But instead, I spent my time
on swimming and basketball,

video games

and girls.

(Laughter)

Girls are very important, you know,

for school.

I can't imagine how do boys
live in a boys' school.

(Laughter)

So, and more important,

is that I made short films.

I made short films,
and I acted in my own short films.

And also I played in dramas,

which is the thing I really loved.

It turns out,

my academic result was not that bad.

But not bad means not good enough -

I'm not good enough
to get an offer from the university.

And it was really, kind of,
the end of my world

at that moment,

because my family wanted me
to study in university

and I didn't really consider
any other choices.

So, what can I do?

I became a repeater.

I repeated studying Form 7.

And one year later,

I got one grade better,

which is in Use of English.

How ironic.

(Laughter)

I actually got a B in oral.

(Laughter)

Okay, so,

one year later,

I got an offer from PolyU

for a degree

which studies about some mechanics,

calculators, science, etc,

something that -

[No clue WTF to study]

(Laughter)

I have no clue what it is.

But there's also another way,

which is The [Hong Kong]
Academy for Performing Arts,

APA, 演藝學院.

I applied for two courses:

the drama school and the film/TV school.

Actually, drama school
was my first priority,

but when I get to the second
audition in drama school,

I actually don't dare
to take it very serious.

I got zero preparation for that audition.

Why?

Because I don't want to have any hope.

Because I don't think my family
will allow me to get there.

When you study in APA,

you're not considered
as a college student.

But actually, it is a degree course.

So, the second audition in drama school

became the most embarrassing
performance in my life so far,

which is really, really bad
because zero rehearsal.

So, as a result,
I got into film/TV school.

(Laughter)

But don't get me wrong:

I get passion in both
behind the camera and acting.

So, what does that make me become?

A filmmaker, actor,
director, scriptwriter?

No, not yet.

I became a film-making student.

In that four years,

what I most benefit from, in my opinion,

is that I got the chance
to act in my classmates' films -

in acting in my classmates' short films.

It gave me the opportunities
about camera acting.

And four years later, I become a graduate.

And I know most of you think
that I was a YouTuber:

I make some online videos,

and one day, I don't know why,

a director picked me up on the street

and took me to the movie industry
to act as a leading role,

right?

I was a YouTuber,

and I turned to a movie actor -

which is not true.

It actually never happened
in Hong Kong history.

You can ask Tommy.

(Laughter) (Applause)

It never happened.

So, what did I do after I graduate?

When we graduate,

it means that we are hopeless.

(Laughter)

We are hopeless for our future,

and we are hopeless in our industry.

We got twenty students in my class,

and only seven students
studied major scriptwriting -

I am one of those.

And only one out of seven students

are actually working in the industry -

and that's not me,

(Laughter)

because I'm not doing
a scriptwriting job, right?

So, that is what I mean, "hopeless."

So what did I do after I graduate?

I was very lucky

because there were two movies,

got a public audition,

which is, you all know it,

"哪一天我們會飛" -

"She Remembers, He Forgets,"

and another movie, "Weeds on Fire" -

"點五步,"

a baseball movie, which was actually
produced by your school,

and I applied [for] both auditions,

and I actually earned both leading roles

in these two movies.

But they don't want me to act
at the same time in two movies,

so I have to choose.

But I like Adam Wong a lot -

I like his last movie, "The Way We Dance."

So, actually, I got no choice.

So I chose to act
in "She Remembers, He Forgets."

It turns out, I think,
it is really, actually, a wise choice

because this movie ["Weeds on Fire"],

it still hasn't released.

(Laughter)

Don't get me wrong:
it may be a good movie.

I believe it would be a good movie,

but I would not be standing here
to share with you,

because I would still be nobody.

Nobody means no money.

(Laughter)

So after I shot this film
["She Remembers, He Forgets"]

but the movie needed to prepare
for the post-production,

so I got some money in my pocket,

but I was still nobody.

So what should I do?

That was 2014.

In 2014, we all know
what happened in Hong Kong:

the Umbrella Movement.

It gave me a lot of impact
and a lot of ideas.

So I started to gather my crew,
my friends and my classmates

to make my first online videos.

We established
the organization Mocking Jer,

but it was barely an organization,

because we have no money,
no income, nothing.

We are just some friends
gathered together.

And we started to make
our first film with zero budget,

the film named "陳浩南教書篇."

That video

became the top video of the week

in Hong Kong YouTube.

It gained 200,000 views in one week.

So the magazines, the newspapers
started to interview us,

and we were encouraged.

We started to make another film
and another film, with no money.

So we are happy to make our own films,

but the problem is still there.

I got no income.

I barely lived with my freelance jobs.

So what's next?

At that time, our savior comes out:

the boss of "100Most,"

(Cantonese) Roy Tsui.

He called me.

He gave me a phone call
and asked me to work in "100Most,"

which is - actually,
I was the supervisor for "TVMost"

before it launched.

Why?

Because, actually, I did
lots of the funny TV news online,

(Cantonese) "Most News."

Actually, I did a lot for a month.

Every day I did this news,

but it was never published,
because we had to test,

and before the day
"TVMost" launched, I quit the job.

I think there are many
talented youngsters in the company,

and I like to work there,

but somehow,

we are not on the same track
of making films -

I mean, me and the bosses -

so I have to leave there.

So a few months later,

CapTV find me to make
other funny videos online.

And a few more months later,

(Cantonese) "She Remembers, He Forgets"

finally released.

(Laughter)

And the movie released,
it means that I'm relieved,

because, finally, someone
knows me by the movie,

and they started to call me an actor,

and I started to have
a more stable income.

So,

here's today's moral of the story:

I was not a YouTuber first
and turned to movie actor.

Actually, there's no door.

There's no door for any YouTubers
to become movie makers or movie actors.

There's no door.

And, in my opinion,

there is no door for youngsters
to get in the industry, any industry.

It is very difficult nowadays.

So I'm telling you today:

you will never make it.

Whatever your dream is,
you will never make it.

Does that sound evil?

(Laughter)

You will never make it.

Why?

Even as lucky as me,

I got the chance to move
into the movie industries,

but I have not got a bright future,

as you've seen.

I still have not got many opportunities.

So, why would that happen?

In my opinion,

there are too many old men
in the industries.

(Laughter)

They just simply cannot
understand our situations.

They think we are
(Cantonese) "waste youth";

they think we are "rubbish youngsters" -

I don't know how to translate this term.

It is really difficult to translate, okay?

(Laughter)

Because back in their days,

they work hard, they get paid.

They can move in their own flats.

We cannot buy our own flats -

it is, as you said,
"mission impossible," right?

We are barely living on our own.

In their eyes, we are rubbish:

"Why would you do that?

Because you are not hardworking enough.

That makes you rubbish."

They are not willing to open the door.

They keep the door shut,

without which the youngsters
cannot get into the industry.

Every time I see some young actors,

like me or even younger than me,

they are as talented as me or even better,

but they are still being unseen

because there are no platforms
for them to show up,

and that really breaks my heart.

So, that's why I am telling you:

whatever your dream is,
you will never make it.

To the big bosses

(Laughter)

today -

I don't know if there are
any big bosses sitting here -

I am telling you:

so, please, give out opportunities
to the youngsters

or we will kill you.

(Laughter)

Just kidding.

And to the youngsters,

like me, and all the students here:

you will never make it,

but that's not your fault.

Even you will never make it -

please tell yourself
you'll never make it, prepare for that -

but please, still try your very best
to achieve your goals.

So, that's what I want to say:

please walk your own way.

Because nowadays in Hong Kong,

we don't know what will happen tomorrow.

In every aspect, it is such a mess,

especially the politics.

We all know it.

So walk your own way.

And we have to stand together.

We have to stand by each other
for our new generation.

If we cannot get in the door,
we create our own door.

We create our own generations.

There's a sentence in Chinese,

(Cantonese) a misfortune
may be a blessing in disguise,

which means -
I'll try my best to translate -

(Laughter)

which means

if you lost something,
you may be able to get something back.

But in the way I see it,

we must - we must be able
to get something back.

In my case,

I wasted a lot of time
in my secondary school.

But I did try many aspects, many things,

which is really good for my actor career

because I need to play
different roles, right?

And I failed to get to university,

but I got the chance
to study what I loved.

I failed to get in drama school,

but I got a chance to know
more about the camera acting,

and for the scriptwriting majors,
I can write my own stories,

I can write my own films,

and that's what I got.

And the camera acting experience
didn't make me fail

for the public audition
of the feature-length films.

So, you never know
what you've got from your past,

so don't regret for what you did
or what you didn't do.

It's never too late.

Don't think that
if I did this or did that,

didn't do this, didn't do that,

maybe I can be better.

Don't think about it,

because that's just some assumption
which never exists.

So think about it:

the way you walked is always the best way,

that's what I think.

And we have to stand together.

You will never make it,

but please,

try your very best to achieve it.

Because we are in such a messy society.

Do I still got time for a short story?

(Crew: Cantonese) Let's save it for later.

Okay. Thank you very much.

(Cheers) (Applause)